Instant Pot Italian Wedding Soup

This Instant Pot Italian Wedding Soup is a hearty delicious dish consisting of acini de pepe, chopped vegetables, and meatballs. This soup is very easy to make in a pressure cooker and is ready to serve within 30 minutes.

This dish can be served as both a starter or as the main course. Either way it is served, pairing it with a side of bread is a great way to compliment this light and flavorful soup.

Ingredients in Instant Pot Italian Wedding Soup

• extra-virgin olive oil
• minced garlic
• yellow onion
• carrots
• celery
• low sodium chicken broth
• acini de pepe
• fresh oregano
• salt
• frozen meatballs
• baby spinach
• Parmesan cheese

How to Make Italian Wedding Soup in the Instant Pot

This Instant Pot Italian Wedding Soup with frozen meatballs is a quick and easy recipe to follow and make for weeknight and weekend dinners.

Saute - Set the Instant Pot to saute and add the extra virgin olive oil. Add the chopped onion, carrots, and celery to the inner liner.

Add the meatballs - Add the frozen meatballs as well as the minced garlic and saute to brown all sides of the meatballs. Saute until the onions are translucent.

Delgaze - Press cancel and add 1 cup of the chicken broth to the liner and deglaze the pot.

Add the pasta - Pour in the acini de pepe and pour in the remaining broth and top t off with the salt, and fresh oregano.

Pressure cook - Close the lid and pressure cook on HIGH PRESSURE/MANUAL COOK for 4 minutes.

Quick Control Release - Carefully and slowly perform a quick release to release the pressure after the 4 minutes is up.

Add spinach and serve - Remove the lid and stir in the spinach and serve with grated Parmesan cheese.

RELATED: Instant Pot Chicken and Gnocchi Soup (Olive Garden Copycat recipe)

Tips for Making Pasta in the Instant Pot

Thankfully for this Instant Pot Italian Wedding Soup, the liquid ratio to pasta is high so there's really no need to worry about the pasta absorbing all of the liquid added to the Instant Pot but here are some tips for making pasta in the Instant Pot.

Make sure the pasta is submerged. with the addition of other ingredients in the pot, the pasta may lay on top of the water. Make sure to fully submerge the pasta into the liquid by gently pressing it down into the pot with a spoon or spatula.

Use the package as a guide. Look at the cooking time on the back of the package and then divide it in half. Then, take that number and subtract one minute from the number you get by dividing it in half. This new time will become the pressure cooking time for the pasta.

Quick Control Release. A quick controlled release is the method that pressure cookers use when cooking pasta. Slowly and carefully turn the valve to venting and intermittently release the pressure from the pot. Allowing the pot to naturally release pressure will result in mushy pasta.

Substitutions for Acini de Pepe

Acini de pepe is also known as peppercorn and is the traditional choice of pasta for Italian Wedding Soup. The good news is that you can easily pressure cook acini de pepe by dividing the time in half that's on the back of the package and then subtracting one minute from the halved time.

Other substitutions for acini de pepe include other small pasta such as ditalini and orzo.

Substitutions for Frozen Meatballs in Italian Wedding Soup

For a quick and easy recipe, frozen beef and pork meatballs are used in this recipe but they can be swapped out for homemade beef and pork meatballs or even homemade chicken or turkey meatballs.

To make this soup in the Instant Pot you will need to prepare your homemade meatballs and cook them through since this Italian soup only pressure cooks for four minutes.

Alternatively, frozen chicken or turkey meatballs can be substituted for frozen beef and pork meatballs without any changes to the recipe in this post.

RELATED: Instant Pot Pasta e Fagioli

What Is Italian Wedding Soup?

Italian Wedding Soup also known as minestra maritata, is a popular soup that is typically served at weddings - it's that simple! Fun fact, this soup was thought to have originated in Lombardy, a northern part of Italy but some believe that it originated in Campania, the southern region of Italy. Wherever it originated, it is a delicious soup.

It is believed that this Italian soup was introduced around the 1940s in the United States where it became a popular dish found in restaurants serving Italian dishes. These days it has become a very popular dish not only made in a restaurant setting but also right at home.

📖 Recipe